March 10, 2011

Australia’s least favourite ranga (red head for my non-Australian readers) has once again burst onto the political scene. Most of us are terribly disappointed, as we thought she had advised Australia to go to hell, and headed off for the shores of the mother country (ie, England). I’m not sure if she actually made it out of the great land of Oz, or, if upon arriving in jolly old England, realised there are even more non-whites in England than there are here and headed back. Either way, we appear to be stuck with Pauline.

The chart I’m using for Pauline is dated May 27, 1954 with a birth time of 15.10 in Brisbane. The first thing that leaps out of the chart at me is Saturn directly on her Scorpio ascendant. With its aspects to Jupiter, Mercury and Venus (trine) and Chiron and Pholus (square), this is indicative of her taking herself way too seriously, as well as her tendency to open her mouth and get herself in trouble by demonstrating the little that she actually knows (I know I will never forget that television interview and the introduction to the Australian lexicon of the nasal “Please explain”.)

The other aspect in Pauline’s chart that I love is a (wide) yod, with Pluto and Neptune the base points and the Moon at the tip of the Yod. To emphasise the watery and destructive nature of this yod, Pauline also has Uranus on both her midheaven and her South Node. Pauline is the bringer of chaos. She is the voice of the old, challenging the new, and doing it by appealing to people’s fears of the unknown and the Other. This is why people like my dad and Bob Katter think she is fabulous. White Australia policy? Great. No expression of different cultures? Excellent. Fit in or sod of? There should be more of it. Let’s go back to the days when Australians were white, and anyone who wasn’t was someone you picked on mercilessly and refered to as a wog or some other derogatory name. Pauline preys on the fears of those in society who don’t understand how fabulous it is to have a mix of cultures in this great country. She spreads the belief that anyone who doesn’t wear stubbies and thongs is perpetrating racist violence and hatred. I can think of someone who is perpetrating racist violence and hatred, and I don’t think it was any of the ladies I saw at uni the other day in their gorgeous berkas.

So why does Pauline’s particular brand of rhetoric appeal to so many Australians? The answer lies in the comparison between her chart and the chart for Australia. (Australian Federation chart – Jan 1, 1901, 13.35, Sydney.)

Pauline’s North Node and her Mars sit astride Australia’s sun in Capricorn. Pauline wants what is “best” for the country, and her drive and determination and focus on the working class are all very “Australian”. She’s a sheila with guts and she’s having a go. All very Australian stuff.

Pauline’s Uranus South Node conjunction sits right on top of Australia’s Pholus. She manages to stop people from seeing clearly. Her use of emotive language and the way she works the issues really appeals to the lowest common denominator, which is the fear of the loss of our fabulous Australian life style due to the (literally) dark and mysterious other. Freedom, mateship, red-heads running free without fear or favour are all endangered ways of life if the mysterious “other” comes in and takes over. No longer will fish and chips be freely available. We will be forced to eat terrible “ethnic” food like kebabs and pizza (although I for one am failing to see the problem with that).

Pauline’s Moon – and therefore, the tip of the yod with Neptune and Pluto – sits right on top of Australia’s Eris. Eris, as I have previously mentioned, is the Goddess of strife and discord. And the issue of race and the place of white Australians versus people from non-anglo-saxon backgrounds seems to be one bone of contention which will always exist in this country. There is a deep seated fear amongst some Australians that the country will completely fall apart due to “invasion” of other cultures. The Howard government played upon this very heavily in the Federal election of late 2001. The threat of hoards of “boat people” descending on the country, plus the added threat of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in the USA proved too much for Australians to bear, voting back in the conservative government who appeared best able to protect them from the invading hoards. Another interesting point to note is that Pauline was originally kicked out of the Liberal party for being too right-wing …. and then John Howard adopted most of her ideas. It is a strange world we live in, no?

The Sabian Symbol for the degree of Australia’s Eris is “A man bringing down the new law from Sinai”. This is, indeed Australia’s biggest challenge – the ability to move forward and accept and encourage many cultures to live together in harmony, to take that spritual step forward, to take the best from the cultural melting pot we have here and make a new and wonderful nation. While Pauline is around, this will always be her point of attack. It’s cheap, and it doesn’t take much to incite fear of things you know nothing about. Hopefully her run this time round will be short-lived.